20 July, Ankara (UN Information Centre) – Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday received World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General’s Special Recognition Award for Contribution to Global Tobacco Control.

Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO’s regional director for Europe, presented the award to PM Erdoğan at a ceremony at Ankara Rixos Hotel.

Jakab said that it is a great pleasure for her to present the award to PM Erdoğan on behalf of WHO, the Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan and all WHO staff who have worked on Turkey’s national tobacco control programmes. 

Jakab said at the ceremony that the award is given to Prime Minister Erdoğan in recognition of his strong and continuous leadership in tobacco control and in promoting healthy lifestyles and smoke-free environments in Turkey, driving Turkey to become one of the leaders in global tobacco control efforts.

Mentioning that the Turkish Constitutional Court is currently examining how the adopted smoke-free law fits into the national constitutional framework, Jakap said that WHO respects the work of the Turkish Constitutional Court and hopes very much that it will rule in favour of protecting people’s health from tobacco smoke. She reiterated that health is also a constitutional right.

Jakap concluded her remarks by saying that the success of Turkey is observed closely in many countries in the region and globally and to maintain this success, continuous commitment by all stakeholders is required. She also ensured WHO’s continued support for Turkey’s anti-smoking efforts.

In his a speech at the award ceremony PM Erdoğan emphasized that sales of cigarettes had decreased considerably following the smoking ban. He also said that the number of people going to hospitals due to smoking-related complications also decreased by 30 percent following the smoking ban.

Saying that people were exposed to secondhand cigarette smoke by others smoking, Erdoğan noted that this is a kind of violation of human rights, underlining that protecting people’s health is one of the duties of the government.

“Active smokers are as risky as people who hang around with a weapon in their hands,” he said, adding that the number of people who lose their lives because of smoking is much larger than that of terrorism victims and that more than 50 diseases in the world today are caused by smoking.

Erdoğan said the government is determined to continue the struggle against smoking and called for people to contribute to the mission.

He also said people present in the surroundings of smokers were negatively affected by smoking, mentioning the WHO’s estimates that 700 million children are exposed to cigarette smoke.

Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) was also launched following the award ceremony.

According to the report tobacco use is a major preventable cause of premature death and disease, presently causing over 5 million deaths each year and expected to cause over 8 million deaths yearly by 2030. Within the European Region, tobacco is responsible for approximately 1,6 million deaths. The WHO – Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) aims to reduce the global burden of disease and death caused by tobacco thereby protecting present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke. This will be accomplished by providing global policy leadership – promoting the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), as well as the MPOWER package of tobacco policies as a key entry point to the FCTC. Within the European Region, 46 countries and the European Community have ratified the Treaty. Turkey ratified the FCTC in 2004.

In August 2006, the WHO and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) convened an expert consultation to discuss adult tobacco surveillance and made recommendations for the development of a standard survey protocol. The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) enables countries to collect data on key tobacco use and tobacco control measures using a standardized questionnaire, sample design and data collection/management procedures among adults aged 15 years or over. Results from the GATS will assist countries in the formulation, tracking and implementation of effective tobacco control interventions, and countries will be able to compare results of their survey with results from other countries implementing the GATS.

Tobacco use

A total of 31.2% of adults (approximately 16 milion) aged 15 years and over were currenty smoking in Turkey. Men (47.9%) were more likely to smoke tobacco than women (15.2%). Approximately 12 million men and 4 millyon women smoked tobacco. Almost half of men (43.8%) and 11.66% of women were current daily smokers (11 million men and 3 million women).
Over 9 in 10 current smokers smoke manufactured cigarettes (92.6% men ,98.0% women).

Almost two-thirds (66.1%) of current daily cigarette smokers consumed more than half a pack of cigarettes (11 cigarettes) per day; 15.5% consumed more than 20 cigarettes daily. On average, men consume more cigarettes per day (19.3) than women (12.2).

The minimum age for purchasing tobacco products is 18 years of age in the current legislation. Nevertheless,more than half (58.9%) of the daily smokers started smoking on daily basis before this legal age. Men (62.5%) were more likley than women (48.9%) to initiate daily smoking before age 18. The average initiation age for men was 16.6 and women 17.8.

The number of cigarettes smoked per day, and having the first cigarette within 30 minutes after awakening were possible measures of tobacco dependency included in the GATS. Nearly half (45.4%) of the men smoke a pack a day,and one in five (17.7%) smoke more than a pack of cigarettes daily (heavy smokers), 7.6% of the women smoke more than a pack a day. Overall,  41.1%of daily smokers smoked tobacco within 30 minutes of awakening -12.8% within 5 minutes of waking. Men (42.6%) were more likely than women (35.6%) to have their first cigarette within 30 minutes after waking.

Smoking tobacco in water pipes (2.3%) is an emerging form of tobacco use in Turkey, especially among young adults.Use of water pipe was highest for a men age 15-24 (8,1%) and those living in urban areas (4.9%)

Smoking cessation

Slightly more than one fourth (26.5%) of ever daily smokers have quit smoking. Almost half (44.8%) of smokers (current and former smokers who quit in the past 12 months) made a quit attempt in the past year. However,only 15.8% of those who made a quit attempt in the past 12 months were able to successfully quit.

Approximately half (46.9%) of smokers visited a health care provider in the past 12 months. Having visisted a health care provider was higher among women smokers (63.9%) than men (41.0%). Nearly half (49.0%) of the smokers who visited a health care provider were asked by the provider if they smoked.Over 8 in 10 (83.1%) of those asked about their smoking status by their health care provider were advised to quit. Only 8.3% of those advised to quit were successful in their attempt to quit.

Over half (50.3%) of current cigarette smokers stated they were interested in quiting;but only 10.0% stated they planned to quit in the next month. In total,  8.4 million current cigarette smokers were interested in quitting - 6,4 million men and 2 million women.

Exposure to second hand smoking (SHS)

At the time of GATS, November 2008, over 6 million adults (38.5%) who work indoors reported that they were exposed to SHS in indoor workplaces.An estimated 5 million men and 1 million women who work indoors were exposed to SHS at their work. Over 2.6 million (31.6%) non-smokers were exposed to SHS at their work.

For adulds in Turkey, 30.5 million (59.7%) live in homes where smoking is allowed. Almost 20 million of Turkey’s non smokers live in homes where smoking is allowed. Over 10 million non-smokers live in homes where someone smokes at least daily inside the home.

SHS  exposure continues to be high, mostly in restauransts prior to implementation of the smoke free law. More than half of the men (57.7%) and 52.3% of the women exposed to SHS in restaurants.Despite the smoking ban that covers all public places (excluding the hospitality sector), one in six (16.5%) people were exposed to SHS while using public transportation and one in ten (11.3%) were exposed to SHS public builings and state offices.Six percent of the group stated that they were exposed to SHS in health care establishments.